WORTH A SHOT

FDA Seeks to Simplify COVID Booster Plan With Annual Shots

The agency is looking at adopting an approach similar to the flu vaccine, updating its shots after assessing circulating strains at least annually.

The Food and Drug Administration is eyeing a new coronavirus gameplan, seeking to simplify and streamline the process by offering Americans a single updated booster shot each year, the agency said Monday. The proposed strategy shift would resemble that used to combat the flu each year, with annual assessments of the circulating virus strains that would allow officials to update the vaccine accordingly. “This simplification of vaccine composition should reduce complexity, decrease vaccine administration errors due to the complexity of the number of different vial presentations, and potentially increase vaccine compliance by allowing clearer communication,” the FDA said. The agency outlined this policy change in briefing documents published in advance of a Thursday meeting by its vaccine advisory committee. The committee’s advisers, some of whom said the proposed shift took them by surprise, are expected to vote on the proposal then. “I’m choosing to believe that they are open to advice, and that they haven’t already made up their minds as to exactly what they’re going to do,” Dr. Paul Offit, a committee member and pediatrician specializing in vaccines, told The New York Times.